Seriously, I dont understand why there should be meritocracy in
our education system.
Now, there is meritocracy in the jobs market. Thats
understandable because companies want the best employees to
increase productivity , outdo other companies and ultimately make a
profit.But tell me, do schools enroll students to benefit
themselves or the students?
Education IS a SERVICE to the people, and should be
that way. In service, every customer gets what he wants, to the
best possible extent. Which service picks its own customers? Is
there a shop or restaurant out there thats says, hey, you’re not
good enough to be served by us, don’t come in!
Let me give you an analogy. There is one tuition center called
AStar center which sprang up in the middle of Orchard. The
owner of this center boasts that his tuition center gets 98%
A for its students when they sit for the
PSLE. So his tuition center gets immensely popular.
But then, the parents who flock to his tuition center find out the
grim truth: That his tuition center only accepts students who have
scored a A* in their P5 SA2 exams (so its given that
they WILL more or less get A* for their
PSLE). Immediately, a scandal emerges in the Straits
Times and the parents avoid A*Star like wildfire. The owner is
condemned, shamed and becomes to embarrased to face other
people.
If such tuition centers exists, they wont last very long, would
they? But what we fail to notice that this is our Education system
in essense. Only the Best pupils go to the top schools, and thus,
the top schools perform best. They start to brag that they are the
best in the system, so they get more popular and attract even
better students. In the end, the good students get better and
better, and the mediocre students stagnate, because there is no
chance for them to get better. And eventually, the gap between the
top schools and the neighbourhood schools widens, and this problem
gets worse and worse.
And thus, we have our ELITISM, our poor social
mobility, and our astronomical gini coefficient of 0.49.
Agreed~! And now foreigners are increasingly part of the elitism
population. But in general, we too portray an arrogant impression
in many foreign countries. I think our education system has
overlooked one serious issue - inculcating of VALUES.
No values but with high education = ARROGANT BASTARD/BIT*H
As simple as that.